Twitter Partying 101

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you know that I love a good Twitter party! They are loads of fun and a great way to connect with like-minded people (and there are usually fun prizes to boot!)

Knowing how to attend a Twitter party is the main hurdle in attending. It’s simple, but it does require a few steps – so here are the basics:

What is a Twitter party?

In the most basic form, it is a chat. Twitter is a vast place so in order to follow the chat more easily people use what is called a hashtag to “label” each tweet they send out, making it easy to find all tweets that are meant for the chat.

Hashtags

This is the most important party of a Twitter party. Without the proper hashtag you won’t be able to follow the chat, and if you don’t use the hashtag no one will see your tweets in the chat. You can usually find this on the RSVP page, the hosting blog or company’s Facebook page or by watching your Twitter stream. They always begin with the pound/number sign # and then contain a party name like like #mygreenbaby, #ecotweeps, #randomchat, etc. Know your hashtag and proceed to the next step.

RSVP & Follow

If the party has prizes you will most likely need to RSVP. Likely this link will be shared all over the place but if not tweet someone using the party hashtag and ask for the RSVP link! They’ll likely tweet you right back.

Also important is to follow the party hosts! If they need to message you this is so important!

How to chat!

This is often the most confusing part of joining a Twitter party. You need to be able to easily follow the chat hashtag to enjoy the party! My favorite method is to use TweetGrid. Here is the method I use and find most efficient.

If you are not logged into your Twitter account you will need to do so before you can authorize. If you do not have a Twitter account simple go to Twitter.com and set one up for free!

Once you have logged in the next step is to set up your grid.

1. Enter the party hashtag where it says “Hashtag” and also into the first column search bar. Press the “search” button to start this feed. This is where you will follow the party.

2. In the second column you will enter your host’s name like this: from:@hostname Press the “search” button to start this feed. This is where you will follow tweets, questions and prize announcements during the party.

If you have more than one host you can do so like this: from:@hostname1 OR from:@hostname2 (and so on for as many hosts as you woud like to follow in this column) Be careful to enter this text properly or the search will not work properly.

3. In the third column you will enter your twitter name. Press the “search” button to start this feed. This will allow you to easily see if you have been tweeted at by a party-goer or if you have won a prize during the party!

Now just enter your tweets into the bar that says “Tweet” and you are a Twitter party pro!

“Retweeting” messages that you find interesting from hosts and party-goers is a great way to join in the fun too!

If you join a lively party that seems hard to keep up with don’t stress! The middle column with your hosts will help you stay on track and if you need to you can always pause the search feed by pressing any one of the “stop” buttons – just don’t forget to hit “search” again when you are ready!

Related

Great article and great idea!! I have started learning to use Twitter and have found the site http://socialmediasites101.com invaluable for both beginning usage as well as power use strategies. Hope this helps your users as well.